1. Field of the Invention
The present invention generally relates to a method, system and program product for transmitting electronic communications using implicitly formed contact groups. Specifically, the present invention allows a group of contacts to be formed based on a history of electronic communications that involve the contacts.
2. Background Art
As the use of electronic communication grows, individuals are increasingly seeking more efficiently ways to identify electronic communication contacts. For example, electronic mail has become extremely popular for both personal and professional communications. In many cases, multiple users are party to a single electronic message. Unfortunately, when addressing a message to multiple users, the sender must often remember the names and/or addresses of each intended recipient. One common technique used in avoiding such hassles is to locate a previous message sent between the same users and then select “reply to all.” However, locating such a message is not always easy. Specifically, the sender could have many previous messages saved in his/her mailbox. The messages could be saved in any order (e.g., chronological, alphabetically, etc.) Unless the sender knows when the previous message was received, or the name of the first “recipient” thereof, the sender can spend a significant amount of time locating an appropriate previous message. Moreover, once located, the sender may have to edit the listed recipients so that only appropriate recipients will receive the current message. The sender may also have to edit the subject line to fit the purpose of the current message.
One previous attempt to address these problems involves manual formation of user/contact groups. Specifically, a sender can set up one or more groups of users. When the sender wishes to send a message to all users in the group, the sender need only select the group, and not individual users. This, however, requires deliberate efforts on the part of the sender to establish and update each user group. It also requires the sender to remember the various names of each user group he/she has established. This can be especially tedious where the sender has established a large quantity of groups.
Therefore, there exists a need for a method, system and program product for transmitting an electronic message using an implicitly formed contact group. Specifically, a need exists for a group of contacts to be implicitly/automatically formed based on a history of electronic communications that involve the contacts. A further need exists for a group of contacts to be identified to a sender of an electronic message when the sender identifies one of the contacts as an intended recipient of a current electronic communication. Still yet, a need exists for the contacts in the group to be added as additional recipients to the electronic communication when the group is selected by the sender.